What happened
Atlas HXM, an employer of record (EOR) provider, has released its Global Atlas Report 2026, as reported by Talent Canada. It is based on a survey of 425 senior HR, legal, finance and operations leaders in North America and Europe. It is a vendor survey, so read it as a signal, not a census.
The headline finding is that finding people is now as hard as staying compliant. 49% of organizations with an international workforce say attracting and retaining international talent is very or extremely challenging. The same share say that of operational complexity across countries. Changing immigration policy is speeding hiring decisions up for 68% of respondents, and 52% plan to expand their international presence in the next 18 months, against 16% who plan to hold steady.
Engagement is the weak point. 69% of leaders say keeping an international workforce engaged across borders is hard. 50% cite higher turnover and job-hopping, and 54% report more employees using AI-assisted workarounds. 51% report widening skills gaps. On the US side, 60% of organizations plan to hire in Canada, and 54% of all respondents use or plan to use an EOR, though 24% could not define one correctly.
Why it matters if you are hiring
The Canadian number is the one to read twice. If 60% of US organizations planning international hires are looking north, Canadian employers are competing with US firms for the same engineers, analysts, finance staff and operations leads, often with remote offers in US dollars. That pressure lands first on specialized roles that can be done from anywhere.
The second lesson is retention. Respondents report job-hopping and cultural friction rising in distributed teams. A hire you win but do not keep costs you twice. Managers of remote or hybrid staff need a plan for onboarding, check-ins and career paths, not just a start date.
Third, the survey points to skills gaps outpacing reskilling. When you write a job profile, separate what a person must already know from what you can train in the first six months. That widens your pool without lowering your standard.
One thing to do this week
Pick your single hardest open role and benchmark it against what a US employer hiring remotely in Canada could offer: pay, flexibility and growth path. Then write down the one thing you would change to keep your offer competitive, and take it to whoever approves the budget.
Traverse has placed operations, finance, sales, contract and technical people with employers across Canada and the US since 1997, and we help employers reach the candidates who are weighing more than one offer.